Claims
- 1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:
receiving annotation data of an author that is deemed public and automatically sent from the author's device for publishing; and distributing the annotation data to at least one recipient subscriber.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving annotation data comprises receiving handwritten strokes corresponding to a page of a publication.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein distributing the annotation data to at least one recipient subscriber comprises combining the annotation data with other annotation data on a shared canvas.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the shared canvas corresponds to a page of a publication, and wherein receiving annotation data comprises receiving handwritten strokes corresponding to the page.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein distributing the annotation data to at least one recipient subscriber comprises combining the annotation data with other annotation data on a graffiti page.
- 6. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving annotation data comprises receiving handwritten strokes independent of any page of a publication.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein distributing the annotation data to at least one recipient subscriber comprises accessing a list of subscriber users, and sending the annotation data to at least one subscriber user in the list.
- 8. The method of claim 7 wherein sending the annotation data comprises automatically updating a subscriber.
- 9. The method of claim 7 further comprising, receiving a request from a computing device corresponding to a subscriber users, and wherein sending the annotation data comprises providing the annotation data in response to the request.
- 10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, persisting the annotation data.
- 11. The method of claim 10 further comprising, receiving data corresponding to a page of a publication, and wherein persisting the annotation data comprises persisting the annotation data in association with a the page.
- 12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.
- 13. In a computer network having a server and clients, a system comprising:
an annotation device that is a client of the server, the annotation device including an annotations program that manages ink annotations input by an author and includes at least one operating mode in which the input ink annotations are to be published; and a send mechanism that sends the published ink annotations to a server for distribution to other clients.
- 14. The system of claim 13 wherein the send mechanism comprises a background send thread of the annotation device.
- 15. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotation program displays a page of a publication, and wherein the ink annotations are received in association with the displayed page.
- 16. The system of claim 15 wherein the send mechanism provides an identity of the author, an identifier of the page of the publication and stroke data corresponding to the ink annotations to the server.
- 17. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotations program includes at least one other operating mode in which received ink annotations are private.
- 18. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotations program provides at least one warning to the author when the operating mode is one in which the input ink annotations are to be published.
- 19. The system of claim 13 wherein one operating mode in which received ink annotations are to be published comprises a presentation page notation mode in which annotations are distributed by the server to subscriber clients.
- 20. The system of claim 13 wherein one operating mode in which received ink annotations are to be published comprises a shared canvas mode corresponding to a publication page in which annotations are distributed by the server to any other client in association with that publication page.
- 21. The system of claim 13 wherein one operating mode in which received ink annotations are to be published comprises a graffiti page canvas mode in which annotations are distributed by the server to any other client.
- 22. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotations device includes a receive mechanism that receives annotations published by at least one other client and provides those annotations to the annotation program for presentation.
- 23. The system of claim 21 wherein the annotations device combines the received published annotations with the annotations input by the author for displaying to that author.
- 24. The system of claim 21 wherein the receive mechanism comprises a background receive thread.
- 25. The system of claim 13 wherein the received annotations correspond to a shared canvas mode in which any client receives data from any other annotations publisher in association with a publication page.
- 26. The system of claim 13 wherein the received annotations correspond to a graffiti mode in which any client receives data from any publisher that is operating in the graffiti mode.
- 27. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotation device further comprises a mechanism for subscribing to receive the public annotations of another user.
- 28. The system of claim 13 wherein the annotation device further comprises a mechanism for filtering which annotations are presented.
- 29. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon at least one data structure, comprising:
a first set of data representative of authors of published annotations; a second set of data for each author corresponding to the published annotation data of that author; and wherein a request directed towards the published annotation data of a selected author represented in the first set of data is accessed from the second set of data corresponding to the selected author.
- 30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 further comprising a third set of data representative of any subscriber of each author.
- 31. In a computer network, a system comprising:
a first annotation device having a first annotation program thereon on which an author inputs public annotation data; a second annotation device having a second annotation program thereon which outputs annotation data, and a server that receives the public annotation data from the first annotation device and sends the public annotation data to the second annotation device for output via the second annotation program.
- 32. The system of claim 31 wherein the first annotation program outputs annotation data, the second annotation program inputs other public annotation data, and wherein the server receives the other public annotation data from the second annotation device and sends the other public annotation data to the first annotation device for output via the first annotation program.
- 33. The system of claim 31 further comprising a background thread on the first annotation device that sends the public annotation data to the server.
- 34. The system of claim 31 further comprising a background thread on the second annotation device that receives the public annotation data from the server.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] The present invention claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/471,844, filed May 19, 2003 and herein incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60471844 |
May 2003 |
US |